How to Draw a Dove

Everyone knows that dove is a symbol of peace and happiness, so pictures of doves are often used in weddings. It is customary to see white doves in wedding photos, usually in pairs. If you can draw a dove, you should be able to easily draw another one identical to it. Doves are not necessarily white in color; they can be gray and black. However, white doves are used in weddings to represent purity and health. In this lesson, we will learn how to draw a dove, step by step in pencil.

Step 1

A kids drawing should always start with the outline of dove's wings, head, and body. At first, sketch an outline of the head and the rest of the body. Dove keeps it tail slightly down when it flies. Draw the wings like pictured here but watch out for proportions. You may copy from my figure.

Step 2

The first step of drawing is always the easiest and most important. Further drawing steps depend on how you draw the outline. At this stage, we only add a few lines and the dove becomes lifelike. Draw a contour line of the tail and the body shape. Well, add the pigeon's feet, yet only short contour straight lines.

Step 3

At this stage, your dove should look like it's flying already since you have outlined its wings and tail. It's not hard to draw the beak and the eyes.

Step 4

Just a few details are left to add to the picture of a dove. It takes most of the time to draw the dove's feet in detail and then divide wings into several sections with a few strokes of pencil.

Step 5

It's easy to draw the feathers on the dove's wings and tail because the basic contours are already there; you only have to divide the distinct contours of the lower sections and extend the line to the base of the wing. Oval elongated tail feathers are drawn a little bit differently. But in general they are easy to draw, even without much experience of drawing birds. You may want to refer to the pictures or photos of doves and pay attention to the coloring of feathers. How about taking a picture of a dove with black-and-white feathers? Then try to recreate the feather pattern using #2 pencil or crayons.